Valkyrie
by ApothecarySpite
Summary: Valkyrie hates everyone from the mother who gave her her name to the latest being to cross her path: the arrogant god who's just kidnapped her. Strangely enough, she doesn't take kindly to being kidnapped. But Loki doesn't care; she's just a pathetic mortal, even a pathetic mortal who is to be his destined bride or even soulmate. (there's further/better description in first page)
1. Valkyrie

_**Valkyrie – Loki/Avengers Fan Fiction**_

Long suffering and trodden-down mutant Lagertha Hervor Lodbrok (Valkyrie) hates everyone from the mother who gave her her ridiculous name to the latest being to cross her path: the rude and arrogant god who's just kidnapped her.

Strangely enough, Valkyrie doesn't take kindly to being kidnapped.

But Loki doesn't care; she's just a pathetic mortal, even a pathetic mortal who is to be his destined bride or even soulmate. She's just human...or so he thinks. But Valkyrie is already making plans to go home, get away from Loki and his 'friends', and maybe even take up a position to get her revenge on her kidnapper. But then again, her luck is never that good: and instead of getting home, she nearly gets herself put in the morgue...

So when Loki hears his preciously hated female had been hospitalised, the woman he both loves and loathes...how will he react?


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

**Trading Mistakes For Sheep**

He watched as the petite blonde woman danced ridiculously around her barren and pathetically empty apartment, looking far too foolish to be what he needed her to be, singing along to what he knew her equally pathetic race called 'headphones', although the 'headphones' themselves were hidden from his view by the waterfall of honey-coloured hair she possessed.

"Placing a smile at the perfect event,  
Gracing your skin with the side of my hand.  
If I ever leave I could learn to miss you,  
But 'Sentimental Boy' is my nom de plume.

Let me save you, hold this rope..."

_Oh, how I wish you would try,_ he thought darkly and maybe even a little bitterly: _but you cannot change what is beyond your comprehension, even if I wanted to be changed by such a completely pointless being._ But as much as that thought stuck with him, it was the chorus of her song that really caught in the back of his mind:

"I may never sleep tonight,  
As long as you're still burning bright.  
If I could trade mistakes for sheep,  
Count me away before you sleep.  
I'll stay awake 'til I trade my mistakes,  
Or they fade away."

He wished that he could get rid of his mistakes, even by doing something as foolish and nonsensical as trading them all for sheep...but he knew that sins were not corrected so easily, wrongs not so easily undone.

So it was just as well for him to make new ones.

Add the reputation he had crafted.

Live up to expectations.

Wasn't that what they had always wanted?

And as much as a deeply-buried part of him wished for the small blonde mortal to save him, to help him fix his mistakes, who was she to do so? The unknown little mortal, just another pest in an ocean of millions, fixing the mistakes of an infamous and one-of-a-kind god such as himself?

God, monster, it was all the same.

It was beyond laughable: as ridiculous as trading mistakes for sheep. And with that thought in mind, he waved his hand through the air, through the vision of his mortal, dispelling the glowing image of the precious female. The hated, but precious little female.

He had things to do while he still walked free that didn't involve watching over his hated mortal: there was plenty of mischief to be caused, lies to be told...a loathed king to de-throne and a beloved mother to mourn.

_I'll stay awake 'til I trade my mistakes,_

_Or they fade away..._


	3. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**Kidnap**

**Valkyrie's Point Of View...**

Fall Out Boy's _Save Rock And Roll_ was playing through my headphones as I sat in the empty white room, looking dully at the wheelchair-bound man in front of me.

I knew who he was, of course I did; everyone did...I think...and I also knew why I was here.

Mutants sticking together and all that...but I really did do better on my own, so I was merely waiting for him to make his request so I could politely turn him down and then book it back home as quickly as I could.

Becoming an X-Man...X-Woman...whatever, becoming part of a team, being under someone's control again...the very idea made me shudder in pure disgust. _Never_ again, even if Charles Xavier was nothing like my uncle. I would never follow any command that I didn't agree with whole-heartedly, never again.

No matter how well-meant this commands were...or whether they were given out with the intent to hurt: I would never carry them out when I didn't want to just because they came from someone higher up than me in the chain of command.

Screw what they what told me to do.

I was my own person...finally.

Smiling at me politely, Charles Xavier finally spoke up in a congenial tone: "Miss Lodbrok."

_Lagertha ____H__ervor Lodbrok...it's no wonder I go by Valkyrie now days_, I thought darkly as Charles Xavier looked me up and down appraisingly. Not as if he was checking me out: more as if he was trying to get an angle into my head. But then...he didn't need that: not with his 'gifts'.

" ." I responded, keeping my voice neutral and my expression closed-off. No need to give him false hope, after all.

"Miss Lodbrok. You are a mutant: correct?" he asked, his tone now blunt and to the point.

I nodded curtly in response.

"I have a proposition for you: join my team, live here at the school and act as instructor for the younger children when you are not acting as part of the X-Men and earn a rather large monthly wage. Along with the wage, you will have a new friends, if not family, and the satisfaction of not allowing others to go through what you went through as a child. What do you say?"

I waited for him to finish speaking before I myself spoke in my politest but firmest voice: "No, thank you."

He looked a little taken aback: "Excuse me?"

"I said 'no, thank you'. I do not want to be part of your team - or anyone's, for that matter, so although I'm very flattered: I'm going to have to turn down your request."

"Miss Lodbrok, we know of your past with your- "

Suddenly – although not unexpectedly – the lights in the room exploded with my temper as all the furniture – with the exception of Xavier's wheelchair - flew away from me where I was now standing and smashing into the walls: "_No_! You know nothing of me, my abilities or my past and stop pretending that you do! I will not be sucked into any of this shit again - not now, not next year, not ever. So back off and let me leave!"

Xavier looked taken aback, but slowly he nodded: "I see the damage has not yet taken time to heal, maybe in a few years - "

"Not now, not next year, not in a few years, not _ever_." I repeated, my voice dead as I turned and walked to the door: "Now let me out."

"Miss Lodbrok - "

"Let. Me. _Out!_" I screamed, causing the glass fragments from the broken lights to turn to almost dust at the pitch of my voice. The door was opened and I rushed out, practically running out and up onto the cold air of the December night in the dark New York streets.

I ran as fast as I could: wanting to get away, get away right now and get away as far away as I possibly could. If they knew who I was, then who were to say that they were the only ones? What if the F.B.I., or the C.I.A., or even S.H.I.E.L.D. came after me next? Charles Xavier may be human enough to let me go...but I had a feeling that whoever ran those government agency wouldn't have the same level of humanity.

They'd drag me in, kicking and screaming, whether I consented or not.

I needed to move: ditch my phone and grab my things, disappear before they came and got me. But even as I let myself into my crappy apartment I felt someone grab me from behind as my world went black.

I was too late.

They'd found me.


	4. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Captor**

**Valkyrie's Point Of View...**

_'A graven barren broken tomb,_

_Resides where once delicate orchids bloomed,_

_No revocation for the damned,_

_Cursed temptations ground to sand!'_

Water dripped from above to a shallow pool, echoing through the dark space around me, the only other sound the words to Motionless In White's Puppets 3 – The Grand Finale. I could sense a faint blue glow from behind my eyelids, but other than that I knew nothing.

_'Like a scornful lustful breed,_

_Dehumanizing virtue for your novelty,_

_Serenade with a swollen tongue,_

_Let not elegy be sung!'_

"Ah, you're awake."

"I am a deep shade of jaded," I spoke along calmly with the lyrics of the song: "Will I burn down you fortress of lies? Six fucking years I have waited to cut you out of my life! No turning back. I've finally let you go and left the past to die..."

"As nonsensical was I would expect from a human."

"Whatever."

I stopped paying attention and focused again on the lyrics playing through my headphones:

_'This is my resignation from all that we've loved and all we left behind._

_Now I'll leave it behind._

_A portrait of torture we paint, beguiling allure whist adorned with lace!_

_Eternally the porcelain cracks a fatal passion forged in black!'_

The voice kept talking, but really I couldn't care less. Some bloke I didn't know was talking to me about things I couldn't care less about: really all I wanted was to work out where I was and how I was going to get away from here.

The very things that made me different from the human the man had called me were working over-drive to gain every piece of information I could:

Past the music, my ears were straining for every little sound: one heartbeat, no-one else.

My nose was picking up on the smell of musty air, water-dwelling plants and fresh water.

I could feel the coolness of being underground or night.

Even behind close lids, I knew where ever I was was dark, except one source of blue light.

I could even taste the dampness in the air.

But there was something else: a crackling in the air, like...like lightning, but not quite. The only thing I could compare it to was what I could do: use the elements around me to defend myself, but even that wasn't an apt description...no: this was something else, and I didn't like it. At all. And I wanted away from it as soon as possible.

Like, yesterday.

Even spreading my senses out as far as I could, I could sense anything that would help me get out of here. No sound of bird song, no warmth of the sun-light on my skin, to smell of fresh air. There was nothing: I was working blind, even when I eventually opened my eyes...

"Are you listening?!" snapped an imperious voice: the same male as earlier, the one that exuded the force I so desperately wanted to escape, but now his voice held barely held-back anger, making my need to escape even more desperate.

"No." I responded, refusing to be cowed even if I was terrified: "What was your first clue?"

I felt the air shift as the male leant down to whisper threateningly in my ear: "You may think you're being brave, human, but really you're just being very, very stupid."

"I find the lines are often blurred." I replied lightly, even as my heart sped up and my hands started to shake: my palms sweating.

"Well then, you should fit right in then." the voice snapped coldly, before I was shoved violently into icy water, my eyes finally opening to see nothing but black water around me, filling my eyes, ears and lungs.

_Oh, so he wanted to play like that, did he?_ I thought angrily: _Well, let's see if he can take what he dishes out._

And with that, I sunk like a stone.


	5. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Prisoner**

**Loki's Point Of View...**

_She should have floated to the surface by now, _I thought as I peered into the dark water I had just pushed Lagertha _Hervor Lodbrok into. She may be slightly more resilient than other humans now I had unofficially accepted her as my predestined bride, but that didn't mean she was immortal._

_Or immune to drowning._

___She may be just a prisoner, but she is your soulmate. If you have killed her, you will never be accepted into Asgardian Society again in any shape or form: no matter what you do between now and the end of time, __my cold, logical side warned me, and the part of my heart that had mysteriously always somehow managed to continue to beat agreed with my logic whole-heartedly: ____Save her: save her now!_

_Sighing, I stripped off my coat and dived into the cold water after her. The cold may never have bothered me, but even with my limited interest in her species, I knew if she was submerged in this for too long she would die, whether I pulled her out of not. Humans were so very fragile (to the point of being almost worthless) and I cursed the fates for giving me one as a soulmate, but right now there was little I could do but go along with it: mould her into what I required: a tool to gain my rightful place on the throne and could get rid of her without question or protest._

_Reaching the pale form of my soulmate, I shuddered to realise I felt genuine concern when I saw her laying motionless at the bottom of the pool, her eyes still shut and her face deathly-still. I shook it off quickly, unwilling to feel such a way towards a mere human: a nuisance, a pest, a blight on my otherwise liveable life._

_Nothing to be concerned over._

_I reached out to grab her wrist, when molten-silver eyes shot open and I felt the water...solidify around my limbs. Not like ice: but like I couldn't move, the water holding me still._

_With a cruel smile, my soulmate easily started to push herself to the surface, swimming as gracefully as if she'd been made for the water, her alabaster skin stunning in the blue light refracting through the water and her honey-coloured hair almost a gold-green halo in the shadows and bright spots those refractions had created._

_She kicked me in the face as she swum up, something I had no doubt was nothing but deliberate, but it was something I ignored even while my nose bled as I worked on undoing whatever she had done to bind me here with nothing but the water._

_It took me some time, but eventually it was done and I too sent myself up to the surface with just a few kicks: only to find her, my coat and sceptre gone. Her music-listening device was also missing, and I realised that she had stupidly made an attempt at escape._

_Foolish; in these caves she was highly unlikely to survive, let alone find her way our of the labyrinthine I had explored as a child, making me the only living being confident of the layout of this place. Even Amora, the only other who knew of it's existence, never strayed a foot off the path I had shown her: fearful of the other cave-dwellers and twisting and turning tunnels it would be so easy to get lost in:____ forever__._

_Poor Lagertha would never stand a chance...although when I caught up with her, she may wish the trolls had found her before I did; I would make her hurt in ways she could never imagine...and I would laugh as I did it._

_Ignoring the part of me that found hurting my Lagertha completely and utterly abhorrent, I used my magic to dry myself and my clothes before setting off into the caves, laughing:_

_"Lagertha...oh, Lagertha, you shouldn't have run away, you know; you're only making it worse for yourself." I called out, my voice charming for all the threat my words held._

_I followed the trail of wet foot-prints, stunned to see where they were leading: towards a back exit no-one knew of except me...a mere half an hour ago I would have assumed it was sheer luck, but now...there was something else about her._

_Something I could perhaps find useful._

_"Oh, poor, poor Lagertha. You're going to wish you stayed in that water." I laughed, following her much more confidently now. Oh, the uses I was going to put this girl to..._


	6. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Ally**

**Valkyrie's Point Of View...**

Rushing through the dark tunnels with a white-knuckled grip on the only weapon I possessed – the sceptre I had stolen from my captor – and my other hand holding his coat tight around me.

I refused to make all this effort to escape only to die of hypothermia.

Taking the twisting turns though the dark, relying on all my senses to avoid the things I could hear and smell in the shadows. Some were small, some were huge, but the majority of them smelt worse than anything I'd ever encountered. They weren't creatures I wanted to bump into, especially not now in my half-frozen and disorientated state.

I could feel fresh air lightly against my skin when I heard mocking taunting coming from behind me: _"Lagertha...oh, Lagertha, you shouldn't have run away, you know; you're only making it worse for yourself."_

_The threat in those words did not go over my head, but being scared would not help me now. I needed to stay sharp: nerves would keep me on my toes, but being scared would cloud my judgement and impair my decisions: and with that man close behind me, that might very well get me killed...or maybe something worse, if he intended to follow through with the un-worded threat in his voice. In short: it would probably be best not to be caught by him...so it would probably be best to stop over-thinking things and start running._

_Using the speed that was another part of my inhuman DNA, I kept following my senses until I reached a crack in the stone. It was small: too small for the taller-than-six-foot psycho who'd pushed me into the lake...but for a skinny, barely-topping-five-foot girl like me? There was just enough space to wriggle through._

_Quickly, I tossed the sceptre through the crack, listening for the tell-tale thud when it hit the ground, judging it to be about four feet below the gap. Next went the coat, and then I hoisted myself up and started to shimmy through, thanking my slight build and small curves. I was just bracing myself for the hands-first drop to the ground below when I felt a cold grab my ankle._

_I screamed with rage, violent throwing my foot back and hoping I kicked him in the face again. I felt my foot connect with something, followed by the sound of that something cracking, and I sincerely hoped I'd broken his nose or something else important._

_He let go and I pulled myself the rest of the way through as fast as I possibly could. I needed to get away now more than ever: an extra kick to the face and a possibly broken nose? If he was going to kill me before, now he was going to fucking ____slaughter__ me. And that sounded far too painful for me to even tolerate: and I could tolerate a lot, thanks to my past..._

_I'd been declared medically dead a dozen times already._

_I was not looking for a thirteenth time._

_Hitting the floor and immediately picking myself up, I dusted off the scrapes on my palms, donned the stolen coat and grabbed the sceptre, sprinting down the rocky slopes while I heard very angry and highly unrepeatable ranting fly out of the cave behind me. Ignoring it, I headed towards where I could see some sort of settlement: hoping that the inhabitants could somehow help me get home, or at least keep psycho away from me._

_Let's just hope they're friendly._

_-{-}-_

_It was two hours later when I stumbled into the settlement: a group of mud-brick and paved-stone houses no more than two stories with flat roofs and open doorways and windows. It reminded of the houses of the lower classes in places like ancient Egypt...but the people here didn't look human: not by a long shot._

_Their skin ranged from azure blue to emerald green and they were scaled, with long tails swinging behind them. Their features were almost lizard-like, as odd as that sounded, and their eyes ran the gambit from yellow to purple to grey. And then there were the teeth..._

_The long, pointed, ____sharp__ teeth._

_And despite even their shortest community members towering over me, they all flinched away from the sight of me...or rather, the coat I wore and the sceptre still in my hand..._

_"Why are you appearing to us as a woman, Trickster." the one who seemed to be their leader snarled._

_"Um...I'm actually not the...'Trickster'...but I may have kicked him in the face. Twice. If he's the one I think you're talking about."_

_"We are talking about Loki of Asgard, the Trickster, silver-tongue and God of Mischief and Lies."_

_"Tall, with black hair and really pale skin? And a total psycho?"_

_"What does psycho mean?" their leader asked._

_"Psychopath."_

_"Then yes. We're talking about the same being. And you kicked him in the face twice before stealing his coat and sceptre?"_

_"He did kidnap me and shove me in a lake. I felt it was deserved."_

_The humanoid-lizard person laughed: "It was more than deserved, tiny warrior, and as an enemy of the Trickster, you are a friend of ours."_

_"Thank you."_

_"No problem, our new little warrior ally."_


	7. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Five**_

_**Trouble**_

_**Valkyrie's Point Of View...**_

No sooner had I been accepted into the group here, the females – I think – took me into one of the buildings and took the Psycho's coat and sceptre from me, placing it carefully on a side table before asking me to strip. I did so (down to my underwear, at least) and was then given some new clothes to wear.

A silk black blouse, covered by dark silver chain-mail under-shirt that came down to mid-thigh and a dark silver breast plate. I was also given skin-tight black leather pants and knee-high soft leather boots. With each piece of clothing, I thanked the females profusely, but they just waved me off, saying they'd help anyone who pitted themselves against The Trickster...or obviously as I knew him, Psycho.

Once I was dressed, they handed me back the coat and sceptre, before being led to what seemed to be the centre of the village, where I was sat down before the fire and the same females who'd dressed me started swiftly braiding my hair into an intricate style while their leader started talking to me:

"The one you call 'Psycho' we know as The Trickster, but he is known as many other names: Silver Tongue, Frost Giant, Loki - "

"Loki, as in the Norse god Loki?" I asked, the words from earlier finally clicking in my head: '_Loki of Asgard, the Trickster, silver-tongue and God of Mischief and Lies'._

The leader nodded, and I swore. Everyone knew who Loki was, even if in the dark cave I hadn't been able to make out his exact features...he'd nearly destroyed New York two years ago in a bid to take over the world...and now he'd kidnapped me and brought me wherever the fuck I was..._shit. Shit shit shit._

I was so fucking screwed.

"I take it you are not happy to have been brought here by him. But that does not answer who you are, little warrior."

"Lagertha Hervor Lodbrok. Or Valkyrie."

"Fitting. Do not worry, little Valkyrie. The god will not hurt you here. We are known for our fighting prowess, even the gods of this realm do not bother us."

"But if one were too, it would be him." piped up another one of the villagers, a tall and more than muscled male covered in scars and wearing full silver armour decorated with lots of different jagged deep blue patterns that I assume stood for some rank or maybe even the amount of battles he'd survived.

"The we shall fight him off." the female next to him snapped, but there was a little bit of glee in her eyes: a violent kind of glee that made me think that maybe she wouldn't be too annoyed if Loki did attack; she seemed to really want to get her hands on him...and she was more than welcome to do so, in my opinion; I wanted nothing more to do with the entire situation. I just wanted to go back home.

And with that in mind, I nodded gravely, like I knew what I was doing. Whether I did or didn't, it seemed like a good idea to show some sort of bravery. They seemed like they'd value that kind of thing.

When in doubt, bluff your way through it. Both the best and worst piece of advice I'd ever been given, because although now I was very good at bluffing, it wasn't always the case that even my skills could get me through every situation I'd like them to.

But right now, it wasn't exactly like I had a choice.

So: when a furious looking – _an extremely furious looking although quite good looking in a 'I'm-a-psychopath-who-wants-to-kill-everyone' kind of way_ – and dripping wet figure appeared, glaring hatefully at me from just outside the village boundries...all I could do was stand up and glare right back at him like I somehow knew what I was going to do.

On the inside, though...I was screaming, wanting to run so far so fast that nobody would ever be able to catch me.

And yet I was still standing here: head held high, just waiting.

___Oh, shit__, I thought darkly, a not without a little fear: ____I am so in trouble now._


End file.
